To James Madison from Nicholas Brown and Thomas P. Ives, 5 June 1815
From Nicholas Brown and Thomas P. Ives
Providence June 5th. 1815.
The Memorial of Nicholas Brown and Thomas P Ives both of Providence in the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Merchants and copartners in Trade and Commerce under the firm of Brown and Ives respectfully Shews that in the Month of January A.D. 1810 they fitted out and dispatched the Ship General Hamilton owned exclusively by them on a voyage to the River Jade and a market in the North of Europe having on board as cargo the Goods enumerated in the Bill of Lading hereto annexed marked A1 owned by them and commanded by Charles Holden Junior, that the orders given to the said Holden were to enter the River Jade provided he should not be advised that it would be unsafe so to do; but the said Holden after having arrived on the European Coast obtained information that to attempt entering said River would be attended with hazard and therefore proceeded to Gottenburgh in the Kingdom of Sweden where he arrived in safety with said Ship and cargo, on, or about the fifteenth day of April A.D. 1810 and after remaining some time was directed by Samuel W Greene the consignee of the cargo to proceed to Stralsund in said Kingdom where said ship and cargo arrived about the twentyfourth day of May A.D. 1810 and was there openly, and publickly entered and the duties thereon duly and legally paid or secured that the said Greene proceeded to discharge and make sale of such parts of said cargo as there were in immediate demand but before the Sale of the whole had been effected on the seventh day of June A.D. 1810 Two hundred and Seventy three Hogsheads of the Tobacco and four casks of Rice part of the cargo mentioned in said Bill of Lading and which are more particularly enumerated in the annexed Schedule marked B2 were sequestered by Swedish Officers acting as was alledged by order, or through, by, or under the influence of the Emperor of the French and thereby taken from the possession and control of the Said Greene that soon afterwards the said Goods were released from all claim and demand on the part of the said Emperor of the French but Still were retained in possession of the said Swedish officers and were afterwards sold by the Government of Sweden and the proceeds paid into the public Treasury of that Kingdom. Your Memorialists would represent that said importation into the port of Stralsund was open and public without opposition or objection on the part of the said Swedish Government, all Tolls and duties on the Ship and cargo duly secured or paid under a strict compliance With all the municipal and publick regulations of that Government, and they have yet to learn upon what Specious pretence or under what right or authority the said sequestration and subsequent sale were made. Your memorialists have entertained strong expectations that from the public and well known justice of the Government of Sweden they might long since have expected a complete and ample remuneration, for the Goods before described; but although reiterated applications have been made for that purpose by Mr John Speyer Commercial agent of the United States resident at Stockholm no redress has yet been offered. Mr Speyer last letter on the subject is dated 19 July A.D. 1813 a copy of which marked C3 is hereto annexed. Your Memorialists under these circumstances respectfully pray the interposition of Government and that from the proper department of state a representation may be made either directly to the Government of Sweden or through their minister resident here for an adequate indemnification and remuneration for the loss of said Goods sequestered and disposed of in manner as before stated And they as bound in duty will ever acknowledge
Nicho Brown
Thomas P. Ives
RC (DNA: RG 76, Preliminary Inventory 177, entry 371, Sweden, Misc. Claims, ca. 1810–32, filed under “General Hamilton”); RC (RPB-JH: Russell Papers). First RC in Ives’s hand, signed by Brown and Ives. For enclosures, see nn.
1. The enclosed bill of lading, dated 27 Jan. 1810 (1 p.), listed the cargo of the General Hamilton as 297 hogsheads of tobacco, 50 casks of rice, 90 bales of cotton, and 3,000 red oak and 521 white oak hogshead staves, “all on the sole account & risk of the Shippers” Brown and Ives. This enclosure and the one marked “B” (see n. 2 below), are filed with and were evidently originally appended to a 5 June 1815 deposition by Greene at Providence (3 pp.), recounting some of the circumstances of the seizure of the property as stated by Brown and Ives, and declaring that “the said Tobacco and Rice, and the proceeds thereof have been and still are detained from the said Brown & Ives who still are as this Deponent verily believes the bona fide owners thereof.”
2. The enclosed “Schedule of Property, … sequestered at Stralsund on the 7th. June 1810 by order of the Sweedish Government,” signed by Greene at Providence in June 1815 (1 p.), stated that of the 297 hogsheads of tobacco shipped, with a net weight of 362,410 pounds, 24, weighing 24,589 pounds, had been sold, and 273, weighing 337,821 pounds, had been sequestered; and that of the 50 casks of rice, with a net weight of 26,249 pounds, 46, weighing 22,075 pounds, had been sold, and 4, weighing 4,174 pounds, had been sequestered. With charges deducted, the proceeds on the tobacco and rice sold amounted to 11,192.08 Hamburg marks banco. On this basis Greene calculated that the sequestered goods would have netted an additional 96,904.04 marks banco. He wrote 237,821 instead of 337,821 pounds for the sequestered tobacco but appears to have actually made his calculation using the correct figure.
3. The enclosed copy of Speyer’s letter (3 pp.), addressed to various U.S. merchants including Brown and Ives, stated that upon his arrival in Stockholm in February 1811, the Swedish government had told Speyer that the sequestered property of these merchants would be restored when the French released their claim on it. He was therefore surprised to learn six months later that immediately after France had turned the property over to Sweden, it had been sold “in one lot” for a sum far less than its actual worth. Swedish promises of reimbursement were finally rendered null by a 22 May 1813 note to Speyer from that country’s foreign minister, declaring “that his Government could not possibly allow any indemnity to the Owners of American Property Sequestered at Stralsund.” Speyer therefore believed he could do nothing more, and recommended that the owners apply to the Swedish government through the U.S. State Department. For the 1825 settlement of the claims, see 8:204 n. 1.